Book Ends

Whenever I travel with my sister Ellen, we inevitably start talking about the book ends of the travel. The book ends happen on the flight home, when the time between the flight to the destination and the return flight gets compressed in the blink of an eye. It always amazes us how fast the time in between goes, like a grape being squashed between two fingers.

I went down to Florida last week to visit my aging Grandparents. They are 95 and 98 years old and poised to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary this coming Spring. When you look back at their lives, what comes to mind is the legacy they have built as the heads of the family. Family is everything to them. You should see the pride in their eyes when they talk about their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great great grandchildren. What doesn't come to mind is how much money they made, how big their house was, what kind of car they drove, etc... It's all insignificant at that age. When the book ends of life slam together and compress everything in between, what will the summary on the back of the book say? What it all boils down to is how much they were loved and how much love they gave. We come in to this world as helpless infants and for many of us, we'll leave the same way. The important thing is how much love did we fit in the middle.